Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Philadelphia's Past on Google Maps

PhilaPlacePhilaPlace is an interactive website, created by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, that connects stories to places across time in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods. The front page of PhilaPlace is dominated by a beautifully rendered animated Google Map. The map uses an historical map overlay of the city and animates through the site's historical stories. Users of the site can even add their own stories to the map.

Clicking on one of the links in the animated map windows takes the user to another Google Map that includes an incredible wealth of information about Pennsylvania's past. This information can be sorted by category and by source (data added by Historical Society of Pennsylvania or by users). The map also includes two tours, one for north Philadelphia and one for south Philadelphia.

The map markers, when clicked, include historical information and some incredible historical photographs of the city. This is definitely my favourite Google Map mashup of the week.